''Pink String and Sealing Wax'' is a 1945 British

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by

Robert Hamer Robert Hamer (31 March 1911 – 4 December 1963) was a British film director and screenwriter best known for the 1949 black comedy ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' and the now acknowledged 1947 classic '' It Always Rains on Sunday''. Biography Ham ...

and starring

Mervyn Johns David Mervyn Johns (18 February 18996 September 1992) was a Welsh stage, film and television actor who became a fixture of British films during the Second World War. Johns appeared extensively on screen and stage with over 100 credits between 1 ...

. It is based on a play with the same name by

Roland Pertwee Roland Pertwee (15 May 1885 – 26 April 1963) was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He was the father of ''Doctor Who'' actor Jon Pertwee and playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee. He was al ...

. It was the first feature film

directed on his own. The title derives from the practice of pharmacists in the Victorian and Edwardian age of wrapping drugs in a package sealed with pink string and

sealing wax Sealing wax is a wax material of a seal (emblem), seal which, after melting, hardens quickly (to paper, parchment, ribbons and wire, and other material), forming a bond that is difficult to break without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify ...

to show the package had not been tampered with.

Summary

The story is set in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

in 1880. Pharmacist Sutton, a strict, arbitrary father, scolds his son David ( Gordon Jackson) for writing love verses instead of seeing to business at the pharmacy. He dismisses David's explanation that he is in love and wants to marry. At home, he refuses permission for his older daughter Victoria to train as a professional singer. Sutton then dismisses Peggy, his younger daughter, for her objections to his

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...

of guinea pigs There are also two younger children. After supper, David reacts to his dad's tough-as-nails attitude by visiting a local pub. While there, he overhears two women gossiping about the landlord's wife, Pearl, and her liaison with another man. Later, David, feeling tipsy, bumps into Pearl outside and engages her in conversation. By the time he arrives home, he is barely sober enough to prepare for bed. Later, Victoria and Peggy, forbidden from seeing a popular opera singer's concert, decide to wait outside the stage door. Victoria gains the singer's attention by singing "There's No Place Like Home" (''

Home! Sweet Home! "Home! Sweet Home!" is a song adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera ''Clari, or the Maid of Milan.'' The song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. Bishop had earlier ...

''). The singer invites them to supper and arranges for Victoria to attend an audition at London's Royal College of Music. They collect enough money to pay for Victoria's train fare to London. Her audition is a success and she receives a full scholarship offer, which she intends to accept, against the wishes of her father. He says that the scholarship may pay for her tuition, but that he will not allow her a penny to provide food and lodging, meaning she cannot take it up. Mrs Sutton suggests that the money she brought to the marriage could be used to support Victoria, but her husband points out that according to law, that money belongs to him, and she has no say in the matter. She sorrowfully tells him that his children fear him instead of loving him, and hide their true selves from him because he has never tried to understand them, or look on them as people in their own right. She also says that were it not for the ages of the youngest children, she could find it in herself to leave him. Mr Sutton is shocked. Back in Brighton, Pearl visits David at the pharmacy to treat a cut she got from Joe, her husband. David tends to her injury and warns her of

tetanus Tetanus (), also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'' and characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually l ...

. He discusses the various poisons on the shelf. Pearl steals some of them while he is out of the room fetching her a glass of milk. Pearl returns to the bar and is told Joe has collapsed drunk upstairs. Pearl cuts Joe's hand with a

cut-throat razor A straight razor is a razor with a blade that can fold into its handle. They are also called open razors and cut-throat razors. The predecessors of the modern straight razors include bronze razors, with cutting edges and fixed handles, produced ...

while he sleeps. When Pearl eventually plucks up courage to poison him, she is shocked by the ferocity of his death. She locks the door but then bashes on it crying, "Let me in!" Later, a doctor pronounces Joe dead. He suspects the death was caused by tetanus from the cut. However, after Joe's burial, a police inspector informs Pearl that her husband's body is to be exhumed for a post mortem. Pearl attempts to avoid suspicion. She visits Mr. Sutton and claims David gave her the poison but said it was to "put Joe off the drink" and that unless Mr Sutton records death from tetanus, Pearl will market sure David hangs for murder. However, Sutton sees through the ruse and reveals that it was his expert opinion to the police that caused her dead husband's exhumation in the first place. For once, he actually speaks to his son, who tells him the truth of what happened. Mr Sutton visits Pearl and tells her that David is even now speaking to the police. She is at first furious, then starts to weep, but gets little sympathy from Sutton, nor from the man she loves, who abandons her the moment it is certain that Pearl cannot avoid arrest for murder. Afterwards, she wanders in a daze to the outer edge of the promenade and throws herself off a cliff.

Cast

Release

The film premiered in London on 3 December 1945 at the Tivoli Cinema on The Strand and the Marble Arch Pavilion. The critic in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' praised Googie Withers and Gordon Jackson for their roles, and concluded that Robert Hamer, "has made, in spite of occasional lapses and longueurs, a promising beginning as a director."The Times, 3 Dec. 1945, page 6: ''New Films In London''
Linked 2015-04-25

References

External links

''Pink String and Sealing Wax''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

* * * {{Michael Balcon 1945 films 1940s crime thriller films 1945 drama films British crime thriller films British drama films British black-and-white films Films set in Brighton Films set in the 19th century Ealing Studios films Films directed by Robert Hamer Films produced by Michael Balcon Films about poisonings 1950s English-language films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films 1950s British films British historical films 1940s historical films English-language crime thriller films English-language historical films